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Court documents filed in Hortonworks’ lawsuit against a former sales manager in the UK detailed accusations that he had allegedly nicked contracts for himself and his next employer, The Register can reveal.
The particulars of the case, filed on December 13 and received at the High Court on February 1*, show the Apache Hadoop …

Mercedes' driverless cars need human intervention approximately every 2.08km (1.3 miles), and other makes are totally reliant on frequent switching to manual, according to figures out this month from the Californian Department for Motor Vehicles.
The "disengagement reports" (the times an autonomous car was taken over by the …

Data-over-sound chaps Chirp and energy company EDF have been given £100,000 in funding by the UK government to advance their trials in sound-based sensors for nuclear power stations.
Chirp has been around since 2011, when it was born from research at UCL. It launched its image, link and text-sending app for consumers in 2012, …

An Oxford-based electric motor company is opening a new factory it claims is capable of making 100,000 units a year.
Manufacturer YASA will have its ribbon cut by UK business secretary Greg Clark, who is also to announce £184m in investment to be given to 41 UK universities for "doctoral training partnerships" (previously …

AEV Bill
Britain's new network of charging points for battery operated cars should be "iconic and beautiful" just like the telephone box, according the ex-minister in charge of working out their place in the Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill.
This comes from the report and third reading debate of the AEV Bill, which took place in …

Self-driving startup Nuro has unveiled its autonomous delivery vehicle today – as well as $92m (£65.17m) in funding.
The R-1, as it has been named, is an electric driverless van approximately as long as a normal car, but half as wide, and has modular interior compartments for all your carrying needs. The company's website has …

Drone safety biz Altitude Angel has swept up $4.5m (£3.19m) in series-A funding, it has announced today.
The main backer is the aerial-tech-loving Seraphim Space Fund. Accelerated Digital Ventures (ADV) and Frequentis are also throwing cheques at the biz, based in Reading, England.
Altitude Angel has been working on its …

Jodrell Bank Observatory has been nominated as the UK's entry for World Heritage status.
If awarded, Jodrell Bank will join the UK's 31 existing World Heritage Sites, which include Kew Gardens, Giant's Causeway, and the Lake District, which was added to the list last year.
Reg man goes time travelling at iconic observatory …

A gang of armed robbers reportedly burgled a village home belonging to Bitcoin traders in an Oxfordshire, England.
According to police, four suspects broke into the home of a man and his partner in Moulsford, a town famous for its appearances in Midsomer Murders, last Monday.
One witness speaking to the Mail on Sunday …

UK cartographer the Ordnance Survey (OS) has been selected by the government to help it create an infrastructure for driverless cars.
With £750,000 from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, OS's "E-CAVE" intends to develop an infrastructure with "open standards and architecture" focusing on "positioning and safety".
"E- …

WikiLeaker-in-chief Julian Assange has asked a British court to withdraw an arrest warrant against him, hoping that this would finally allow him to stop his unending Ecuadorean couch-surf.
His defence counsel, extradition law specialist Mark Summers QC, told Westminster Magistrates' Court today that the British bail arrest …

A biennial award backed by the National Museum of Computing for "achievements in computer conservation or restoration" has opened its nominations.
The Computer Conservation Society's Tony Sale Award, first given out in 2012, is looking "to recognise a singular achievement in the area of computer conservation and restoration" …

The UK needs to invest in up-to-date army tech, including protection from cyber attacks, the Ministry of Defence's chief of general staff will warn today.
In a speech to be given today at defence think tank, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), General Sir Nick Carter will warn of the military capabilities of Putin's …

The British and French space agencies have agreed to team up on more missions together.
In a week full of Anglo-French announcements, such as a proposed bridge across the channel and a holiday to Blighty for the Bayeux Tapestry, the UK Space Agency and the Centre national d'études spatiales inked the deal yesterday at …

TalkTalk, Post Office and Vodafone were the most-complained-about telecoms service providers in the UK between July and September 2017, according to an Ofcom report released today.
The British communications regulator's numbers are based on complaints to the six or seven largest players in each sector, which together make up …

The former head of foreign currency exchanges at Barclays New York has been charged in the US with devising and executing a "scheme to defraud HP of money and property", according to an indictment entered yesterday.
Robert Bogucki is accused of six counts of wire fraud, and one count of conspiracy, after Feds alleged he used …

A man from Kent, England, has been prosecuted under the UK's Data Protection Act for leaking sensitive police information on Twitter.
William Godfrey, 30, of Bethersden, tweeted the personal details of a vulnerable adult after obtaining a USB stick belonging to his former partner, a probationary officer, containing the private …

AMD stands accused of "artificially inflating" its stock price by not making public a CPU design flaw the tech world now knows as Spectre, according to a class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of investors.
Yesterday's filing by shareholder Doyun Kim in the northern district of California court stated: "As a result of …

The UK government's "muddled" attempt to boost skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) risks wasting taxpayers' money, according to a report by the National Audit Office today.
Since the early 2000s there has been growing concern about how to achieve higher productivity and economic growth in an era …

Danish submariner Peter Madsen has today been charged with the murder of journalist Kim Wall.
At a press conference Danish police announced that Madsen was also charged with dismembering Wall, and with "sexual assault without intercourse of a particularly dangerous nature", referencing multiple stab wounds found on the body. …

American auto enormity Ford will increase its investment in electric vehicles to $11bn (£7.97bn) in the next five years, it announced yesterday at the North American International Auto Show.
With its planned doubling of expenditure from $3.5bn (£3.26bn), it will create 16 fully electric cars and 24 plug-in hybrids by 2022, a …

More than 6,000 parents looking to access financial help with childcare have had difficulties with using HM Revenue and Customs' frequently broken Childcare Choices website.
Applications, reconfirmations and the paying of fees for the government's tax-free and 30 hours' free childcare initiatives have all been affected, with …

An Intel stockholder filed a class-action lawsuit yesterday accusing the chipmaker of artificially inflating its stock prices by omitting to tell anyone about the Spectre and Meltdown flaws in its products.
The complaint, brought by Intel shareholder Elvis Alvira, pits investors who acquired Chipzilla's shares between July 27 …

A butcher channelled the power of Ecky-Thump to escape being locked in his freezer when he saved his skin by using black pudding.
Seventy-year-old Chris McCabe, of Totnes, Devon, England, found himself stuck when the wind blew the door of his outdoor freezer shut. He then discovered that the internal emergency release button …

The Information Commissioner's Office has fined four businesses £600,000 for spamming customers millions of times.
The companies broke UK law by sending out unsolicited text messages, emails and phone calls between 2016 and 2017.
Wales-based Barrington Claims made 15.2 million spam phone calls between May and June 2016, using …